I’m a native of Mexico who lives and works in Washington D.C. as a Foreign Correspondent. From 1989 to 2005, I was bureau chief for El Financiero, Mexico’s leading financial newspaper. I am currently Washington correspondent for Noticias MVS, Mexico’s #1 radio news station. My book, U.S. Ambassadors to Mexico, published by the Woodrow Wilson Center, looks into three decades of U.S.-Mexico relations from the unique perspective of Washington’s men in Mexico. The book is also available in Spanish under the title El Embajador (Editorial Planeta, 2013). Follow me on Twitter: @DoliaEstevez or write me: mexicobillionaire@gmail.com

Can Billionaire Carlos Slim Return Acapulco To Its Past Glory?

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s one-year effort to return Acapulco to its past glory has been overshadowed by the surge in drug-related killings, which nearly tripled in 2011 and made this port city in the southern state of Guerrero the second most violent city in the world in 2012. In recent weeks Acapulco has been in the international news after five masked men broke into a beach hotel and raped six Spanish female tourists at midnight. U.S. newspapers reported that the rapes have heightened fear and called into question the Mexican government’s ability to control crime and attract foreign visitors.

The crime, which took place in one of Mexico’s best known tourist resorts, was the most recent in a series of violent episodes that has tarnished the international image of what only a few decades ago was a favorite destination for celebrities, foreign leaders and American honeymooners. Acapulco and several other top beach resort cities are the core of the tourism industry, Mexico’s third source of foreign exchange income after oil and remittances.Despite this grim picture, the Consulting Board for the Restoration of Traditional Acapulco, a group of leading Mexican businessmen created in February 2012 and headed by Slim, continues its efforts to pool funding from the state and federal governments, as well as from the private sector, to rescue Acapulco’s waterfront. “Those who do not invest and go slow because they have doubts will be left behind. I am not afraid of investing here in Acapulco,” Slim said in 2012.

But one year later, most of the investment plans have still not been firmed up. According to Adrian Pandal, Slim’s point-man for the Acapulco restoration project, “Cities can not be changed in a short time. SoHo was not built in one year. Acapulco is going through difficult times, but that doesn’t mean it has stopped being a great place.”

The restoration plan calls for reviving the tourism industry and making the city more livable for local citizens. It contemplates opening up the ocean view of the city’s seafront, which is currently overwhelmed by street vendors and cheap night clubs.

Pandal said that while most of the investments are being carried out by the state of Guerrero and the federal government, Slim’s conglomerate, Grupo Carso, is rebuilding (at its expense) more than 5 kilometers of Acapulco’s waterfront. Slim’s participation in the project will be to connect the “quebrada” (where the daring cliff divers put on their daily shows) in the open sea to the “malecon,” the cement walkway that runs parallel to the shore. “It will be one of the most important transformations Acapaculo has witnessed in the past several decades,” Pandal said. Grupo Carso is also investing in a hotel and shopping mall.

In the 2000s, Slim helped give a facelift to Mexico City’s downtown area, known as the Centro Hstorico, by revamping the main streets, hotels, restaurants and stores. Pandal was in charge of overseeing that project. He said Slim is now trying to replicate that kind of sucess in Acapulco.

Slim’s interest in Acapulco is not purely business. He has a large house there that he visits with his family on weekends. “He has affection for Acapulco,” said Pandal. He has been a celebrity in Acapulco for some time. Mexico’s top billionaire (also the world’s richest man) is often seen there at high-society events and schmoozing with stars. In 2011, he attended the annual film festival and was pictured with Academy Award winner Italian icon Sophia Loren and French actor Alain Delon.

In the past, some of Hollywood’s best known faces vacationed in Acapulco. Elizabeth Taylor had one of her marriages there, and in the 1950s, Acapulco was chosen by John and Jackie Kennedy for their honeymoon trip. By bringing world-renowned celebrities to Acapulco, Slim hopes to project the better face of a place that once was the golden destination of the rich and famous.

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